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The Governance Institute has announced a new webinar on “Accountable Care Organizations: The Challenge of Setting Strategy amid Uncertainty.” The webinar will be broadcast Wednesday, September 22, 2010, from 2 pm – 3 pm Eastern time. The 60-minute program will include a live question and answer session.

Registration is free to members of The Governance Institute and $295 for non-members. To register or for more information click here.

The presenters will be two highly experienced healthcare strategy consultants: Don Seymour, president of Don Seymour & Associates and Governance Advisor, and John Harris, Principal, DGA Partners.

What’s an ACO? Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are networks of physicians, hospitals and other providers that work together to improve the quality of health care services and reduce costs for a defined patient population.

What’s new? The health reform law establishes a “Medicare shared savings program” for ACOs, to begin no later than January 2012. The law says ACOs are not just a demonstration or pilot project; contracting with ACOs will be a permanent option under Medicare. If they take off, ACOs could accelerate the trend of Medicare paying providers based on value rather than volume. Private payers might take similar approaches. However, Medicare has yet to define many specifics of the program, leaving providers unsure how to proceed. And some integrated delivery models, such as the Greater Rochester Independent Practice Association (GRIPA) have invested in developing clinical integration but found few private health plans would contract with them.

How to respond? Highly integrated providers such as Kaiser, Geisinger, Mayo, and Advocate are already well-positioned to respond when the Medicare program begins.

Most hospitals and physician groups, however, are at an earlier stage of integration and must evaluate what the ACO program means for them. Put bluntly, will Medicare’s shared savings program offer providers sufficient benefits for improved quality and efficiency to justify their investment in the infrastructure needed for integration, from information technology to physician alignment? A pilot group involving ten medical groups had mixed results, but a final report has yet to be released.